I’ve made no secret of my lack of love for the Academy X characters.

(ROLL OVER Julian for the twinky naked version!)
There were just way too many of them and too many of them had redundant or unimaginative powers and looks. Also, I resented that they got the “full-fledged major player” treatment so early in their creation while Gen X got the shaft. So I never collected their “New X-Men” books simply because I didn’t believe they deserved that monicker.

But as you can see, here I’m including Mercury, Hellion, and Pixie, prominent Academy X characters. Yes, I have had somewhat of a change of heart. I think Marvel’s decision to either kill or all the worst ones was a bad idea. I try to emote along with the characters I read, so it just feels pretty horrible that nearly an entire cast was murdered due to what’s seen as an editor’s mistake. Yea, letting all those Academy X squads spring up like weeds was a mistake, but killing over half of them was a worse mistake.

So I am warming up to these guys because, as characters, they’ve been through a lot. No one deserves to have over half of your graduating class murdered. And indeed, some of the characters express this sentiment.
“All we seem to do well is die.” I think Rockslide said that… Well not in my U, kids!